Hey Lets Go GREEN!!!!!!!!

In the past couple of months, going GREEN has spread across the US like a potent stink bomb wafting through a middle school gym. It seems that everywhere you turn business, corporate executives, your friendly janitor, and of course Oprah are going GREEN.

My sincerest apologies if I sound a little bit bitter but it really bothers me that we as a nation, we are spending millions of dollars in ad campaigns in an attempt to create a fad where people should just do what it right.

In case you have not gotten a “sniff” of what it means to go GREEN here is the rundown:


Going GREEN is the practice of incorporating small changes in your daily life that will positively impact the environment and reduce your detrimental “footprints” on Mother Earth.

Going GREEN can include large or small scale changes such as replacing windows and appliances with EnergyStar approved equipment, using solar panels in your home, building your own compost pile which can be utilized for plant potting, using old newspapers to clean your mirrors and windows instead of paper towels, utilizing the same grocery bag when you go to the store, and cleaning your home with natural products such as lemon juice and vinegar rather than bleach and ammonia.

In addition to making external changes, you can also make GREEN choices in your diet and beauty rituals. For example, try to go 2-3 days out of the week without eating meat or high-processed foods. For the ladies, custom make your own hair conditioners from mayo, tea tree oil, eggs, and olive oil.

Happy GREENING!!!!!!!! Here are some more tips on Going GREEN!

Teddy Pendergrass said it best: "Turn off the lights!!!!"

In the shower, use bars of soap. While they may last for a shorter period of time, they are cheaper and in the end there is not a giant plastic bottle left over to throw away

Pay your bills online rather than receiving electronic statements

Managing Your Health

If you can answer yes to 2 or more of the following questions, Revolution Health may be worth checking out!

1) Have you every been sick for a couple of days and started browsing the Web to "self-diagnose?"

2) Do you wish you have a convenient place where you could track your workout routine, daily weight, or monitor your blood pressure trends?

3) Do you ever think that it would be so easy if you could email your doctor without paying that $20 or more co-pay?

4) Have you ever moved to a new location and wanted to search the ratings of nearby hospitals and physicians?

If so, then Revolution Health is your site! Check it out here at:

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/

Talk about a Doctor on Call

Here, see a young physician in Brooklyn who primarily interacts with his patients through email and web cam. Although this is really cool, I am not sure about the practicality of this, especially for patients who are not as familiar with electronic tools. And also, how does this physician bill his patients?
Check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMAZpCOHWXI&eurl=http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/

Infections

Have you ever heard the phrase: "I'm going in the hospital and hope to make it out alive?"

In "The Social Transformation of American Medicine," author Paul Starr extensively writes on the history of American hospitals and how at one point in US history, the hospital was the last place a person would want to go to receive care. The reasons for this were rather obvious: at the time, hospitals and almshouses usually were for the poor who could not afford specialized care, most Americans preferred to have a physician who could travel to see them, and lastly, hospitals equated death due to the increased rates of infection.

Fortunately, hospitals have drastically progressed but the concern about hospital acquired diseases and nosocomical infections is very prevalent. (FYI: nosocomical infections are those diseases which occur due to care or treatment in a healthcare setting. They are not the primary reasons for admission and often present within 48 hours of admission. Examples include: acquiring pneumonia due prolonged usage of a respirator or developing a staph infection such as MRSA from a neighboring roommate in a nursing home. )

In an effort to curtail the prevalence of hospital acquired infections (HAI), Medicare has pledged to stop reimbursing clinical providers for certain (HAI) that occur under their care.

According to the Infectious Disease Society of America, on Oct. 1, 2008, Medicare will stop paying hospitals for treating the following conditions if they are not present on admission:

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections, Pressure ulcers, Vascular catheter-associated infections, Mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass graft surgery, Fractures, dislocations, or other hospital-acquired injuries, Objects left in during surgery, Air embolisms, and other Blood incompatibilities."


Hmm..good start but in all reality, hospital acquired infections are unavoidable. It will be interesting to see the financial ramifications that come from this policy and if other third-party insurance companies will jump on board.

Health Insurance-Are You Covered?

This year I must admit that I am NOT looking forward to my birthday. It is not that I am fearing a quarter-life crisis or that I cannot think of anything that I want as a gift. The problem is that I am no longer a dependant! I no longer have a primary sponsor!

In case you don't understand, I will be 23, out of school and no longer on my dad's insurance!!!!

About six months ago, I was preparing for job interviews, graduate school applications and making sure that my resume was flawless. I was not aware that I should also be shopping around for the best health insurance premiums, worrying about the lowest deductibles or the highest out-of-network coverage.

For those of you who may be dealing with this or have relatives in the same situation, there is hope.

Here are a couple of options:

1. Get a job w/ benefits! There are many non-corporate companies that offer health insurance to both full time AND part time employees. This includes places that you may not think about such as UPS, Home Depot, Starbucks, Belk and other retail jobs.

2. COBRA-Don't worry about what it stands for, just know that COBRA provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. Pasted from <http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html> Chances are that your former insurance company has a COBRA policy that allows you to pay a certain premium and this enables you to have similar coverage until you have obtained secure coverage by getting a substantial job or go back to school.

3. If you go back to grad school, negotiate with your school a scholarship that will offer some sort of health coverage. This often is in the form of a fellowship or a graduate assistantship where you are considered an employee of the university. Chances are that you will not be going to graduate school in the same state as your parent's insurance. Therefore, you will want an insurance plan that is in the same state as your school. Otherwise, you will be paying additional out-of-network fees and higher deductibles around the first of the year.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

International Focus: United Kingdom

Pay Attention People!

Apparently, talking or text messing on a cell phone is not only dangerous while driving but also when walking. Have you every seen people so involved in their text messages that they cannot see where they are going?

In London, England a group by the name of 118 118 has made its mission to make streets more pedestrian friendly. In an effort to do so, many street lights have now been covered in a Styrofoam padding to protect those pedestrians who are too involved in their conversations to see where they are going. According to the group, over 6.5 million people have been hurt while talking or texting because they were not being observant!....In my opinion, another waste of tax payer money….

What is a Polyclinic?

If you have every worked in a hospital or had a grandparent with multiple health issues, you know the importance of continuity of care and how difficult it can be when a patient has five different doctors for eight different diagnoses and two pharmacies to handle the medications.

In the UK, the NHS (National Health Service) is promoting the creation of mega health clinics, known as polyclincs. These clinics will be capable of hosting multiple clinical services such as major surgeries, psychotherapy treatments, social services, and specialty and outpatient clinics. In addition, patients can be referred by their primary care physician or as a self-referral.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly-

The benefits of polyclinics are fairly obvious: Patients have access to various specialties and health professionals in a close setting. In addition, continuity of care is increased as patients are receiving their care in the same place and all care is documented through a consistent system of medical records.

The Bad-These polyclinics are so large that they must be in urban areas such as London…Patients who live in rural areas are still subjected to travel great distances to these clinics since there probably will not be enough demand for them outside of the cities.

The Ugly-Not all physicians are on board with these polyclinics. Many see these conglomerates as a waste of money and it would weaken smaller existing facilities. (Think the Wal-Mart comes to a small town theory)

Cancer

In the past year or so, you may have heard of a vaccine by the name of Gardisil. It is manufactured by Merck for the prevention of the Human Papillomavirus or HPV. Certain types of HPV have been found to be associated with oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma, a form of throat cancer and genital wart cases. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer which is the second leading cause of death from cancer world-wide and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in developing countries.

Here is the controversy and of course TX is involved: Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in 2007 that required Gardisil to be given to all school girls entering sixth grade, beginning September 2008. This led to an upheaval for many parents who felt that the states were intervening on their constitutional rights.

On the ethical and moral side of things, what kind of message does it send when schools are vaccinating children for diseases that are primarily contracted through sexual contact? For some, it is in the same boat as Nurse Ratchett handing out packs of birth control to your 11-yr old daughter. I am all for preventative care...but I am not sure this method was on the agenda?!? But before you get upset: In April of 2007, the Texas legislature overruled this mandate until at least 2011.

Bossa Nova

If you know anything about music, you know that Bossa Nova is the musical heart and pulse of Brazil. But now, the Bossa Nova Beverage Group has bottled and produced a lovely array of juices that are made from the antioxidant packed berry, the Açai (ah-sci-ee). According to the website "it is a rainforest berry - a small, dark purple fruit that grows on palm trees on the floodplains of the Amazon basin. Recent scientific study has earned it the enviable title of “world’s healthiest fruit” in part, because it is likely to be the world’s highest antioxidant fruit. "

I personally drink about 2 of these a day. At first the taste was a little hard to get used to but now I love it. It has a similar taste and consistency to grape juice (not soda).

Relevance to cancer- All over the media we are hearing about antioxidants with phrases such as "free radicals," "oxidation," and "age-defying." But what does this really mean? Antioxidants are poised as one of the best natural fighters for premature aging, heart disease, CANCER, and Alzheimer's disease by stabilizing free radicals. Free radicals, in simple terms, are unstable atoms or molecules present in the body that can cause damage to cells, protein and DNA. These radicals can enter into your skin and body through increased exposure to the sun and pollution. So grab a bottle of Bossa Nova! (it's not cheap though).

Welcome

So, I must preface this blog by stating that I am partially anti-blog! It's not that I hate blogs, I just find it nebulous to post about what you did from the time you woke up until the time you went to sleep.

For that matter, here are a few rules of how this blog will operate.

1) I am not a medical professional. I am a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a BS in Public Health-Health Policy & Administration.

2) I am under the age of 25-This means that I still feel invincible and am an 80's baby. Therefore some of these topics may only pertain to readers my age.

3) I am proud to say that I am an advocate for increasing affordable and accessible health care for US citizens. I find the nature of everything that pertains to the business of health care and personal health very fascinating.

4) Therefore, this blog will focus on interesting and radical topics, products, facts and policies that either directly or indirectly pertain to US and international health care topics.

5) My text postings will not be that long.

For one, I have a many things to do and am still working on a patent for my intellectual property and two, the cognitive abilities of individuals tends to decrease and languish as more words are imputed into the parietal lobe......i.e- you get bored!